Method and System for Processing Email During an Unplanned Outage

ABSTRACT

The method and system of the present invention provides an improved technique for processing email during an unplanned outage. Email messages are redirected from the primary server to a secondary server during an unplanned outage such as, for example, a natural disaster. A notification message is sent to users alerting them that their email messages are available on the secondary server by, for example, Internet access. After the termination of the unplanned outage, email messages received during the unplanned outage are synchronized into the users standard email application.

PRIORITY STATEMENT UNDER 35 U.S.C. §119 & 37 C.F.R. §1.78

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/655,656 filed Sep. 5, 2003, which claims priority based upon priorU.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/408,755 filed Sep. 6,2002 in the names of Michael I. Rosenfelt and Satin Mirchandani,entitled “System For Providing Backup Electronic Messaging ServicesDuring Unplanned Outages.”

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Technical Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to a method and system forprocessing email during an unplanned outage. More particularly, thepresent invention provides for the redirection of email during anunplanned outage, notifies users that alternative access is available tosaid email, and restores messages received during the unplanned outageinto the users' original email system to maintain the integrity of theemail file.

Description of Related Art

Everyday more and more companies are concluding that email messaging isa mission critical application worthy of inclusion in a businesscontinuity plan. Previously, companies that made this decision had noalternative but to implement expensive and complex systems.Traditionally, the solution has been to replicate the company's entireemail system, such as a Microsoft Exchange database, in a remotedatacenter on hardware similar to that owned by the company. Because ofthe complexity of such system, such as Microsoft's Exchangearchitecture, replication strategies have focused on real-time databasereplication of disks at the byte level or, alternatively, ontransferring offline database backups on a server-by-server basis.

Even in cases where a company implements complete replication of itsdatabases, it is not uncommon for there to be gaps in email continuitydue to, for example, database corruption, the presence of viruses,denial of service attacks, security breaches and other factors. Some ofthe most often cited problems with replication are:

-   -   1. High Cost. The cost involved in replication can be        staggering. In order to implement an effective replication        system, the company must purchase third party replication        software, acquire network bandwidth, secure server capacity,        retain administrative support and then monitor each of these        systems.    -   2. Replication of Only a Subset of the Servers. As a result of        the costs inherent in providing a replicated database, such as,        for example, the cost of hardware, software, bandwidth and        support personnel, it is common for only a few of the most        critical servers to be replicated.    -   3. Database Corruption. Because replication technology by its        very nature mirrors the files from one server onto another, a        corrupt file on the original server will be mirrored in its        corrupt form on the backup server. There is currently no        efficient means for preventing the mirroring of corrupt files.    -   4. Incapacitation Due to Virus. Similarly, if a virus occurs in        a file on the original server, it will be transported to the        second server. Server corruption due to viruses can cause email        outages for days.    -   5. Transactional Inconsistency. Because replication solutions        typically perform byte-level replication of the disks, they do        not provide integrity for the Exchange transaction boundaries.        For example, a single transaction on Microsoft Exchange may        consist of ten sequential writes to the disk. If the replication        software has only replicated eight of those ten at the time of        an outage, then the backup will be incomplete, resulting in a        corrupt file which may fail to mount.    -   6. No Vendor-Supported Replication Solution. Currently no system        that replicates systems like the Microsoft Exchange database is        readily available at an economical price.    -   7. Complexity of Replication. The complexity of making an        efficient, effective replication solution causes the system to        be more prone to failure and thereby require greater resources        to maintain.

For all of these reasons the existing technology fails to provide anadequate method for processing email during an unplanned outage. Thereis a need, therefore, for an improved method and system for processingemail during an unplanned outage.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to a method and system forprocessing email during an unplanned outage and substantially departsfrom the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art. Moreparticularly, the present invention comprises the steps of managingusers' email; redirecting inbound email messages from a primary serverto a secondary server when said primary server is unavailable; notifyingsaid users that the redirection of inbound email messages has beenimplemented; providing the users with access to the email addresses on asecondary server while the primary server is unavailable; notifyingusers when the primary server is again available; and incorporating theemail messages received while the primary server was unavailable intothe software for managing users' email so as to create a complete emailhistory.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The disclosed invention will be described with reference to theaccompanying drawings, which show important sample embodiments of theinvention and which are incorporated in the specification hereof byreference, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of a typical prior art replication process;

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the preferred method of the presentinvention for processing email during an unplanned outage; and

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a method for replicating email addresses ona secondary server.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The numerous innovative teachings of the present application will bedescribed with particular reference to the presently preferred exemplaryembodiments. However, it should be understood that these embodimentsprovide only a few examples of the many available embodiments andadvantageous uses of the innovative teachings described herein. Ingeneral, statements made in the specification of the present applicationdo not necessarily delimit any of the various claimed inventions.Moreover, some statements may apply to some inventive features, but notto others.

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of a typical replication process. Inbound emailmessages 101 are received and processed on the primary server 102. On aperiodic basis, the information on the primary server 102 is replicatedon a secondary server 103. The replication process can occur at the bytelevel, the file level or the disk level. In some cases, the replicationsystem is configured such that only files or disks to which changes havebeen made are replicated. In the event of an outage of the primaryserver, the secondary server is activated. However, because the primaryserver 102 and the secondary server 103 do not act in concert, it isnecessary to take the primary server 102 completely offline beforeactivating the secondary server 103. Moreover, it is not possible totest the efficacy of the replication system by transferring only a fewusers from the primary server 102 to the secondary server 103. Also,because of the complexities in transferring from the primary server 102to the secondary server 103, it can take as long as 30 to 60 minutes tocomplete a transfer at the time of an outage.

FIG. 2 shows a diagram outlining the preferred method for processingemail during an unplanned outage. In general, inbound email messages 201are redirected from a primary server 220 to a secondary server 230 whensaid primary server 220 is unavailable. Users are notified that emailmessages 201 have been redirected and those users are provided access totheir email messages 201 via the secondary server 230. Users are againnotified when the primary server 220 is available. Thereafter, the emailmessages 201 that were received while the primary server 220 wasunavailable are synchronized with the preexisting email messages 201 onthe primary server 220 to create a continuous email history.

In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, inbound email messages 201are sent to a server gateway 210. In a corporate environment, inboundemail messages may be sent from customers, vendors, partners, suppliersand the like. In a typical environment, inbound email messages arerouted to an email application 240 residing on the primary server 220. Aregistry of all email addresses residing on the primary server 220 iskept either on the primary server 220 or on the server gateway 210. Insome cases, the method of determining the email addresses that reside onthe primary server 220 utilizes functionality inherent within the emailapplication 240. In other cases, the method of determining the emailaddresses that reside on the primary server 220 may be an independentprogram operating autonomously.

Next, email addresses that are redundant to the email addresses residingon the primary server 220 are created on the secondary server 230. Thesecondary server 230 can be located remotely from the server gateway 210and may be connected, for example, through the internet. In most cases,a message will be employed whereby the email addresses on the secondaryserver 230 will be updated on a periodic basis to replicate the emailaddresses on the primary server 220. This creation of redundant emailaddresses on the secondary server 230 is continued on an ongoing basis.

A method is next employed to detect whether email addresses that resideon the primary server 220 are detectable to inbound email messages 201.In some cases, this detection can be as simple as monitoring the emailflow for error messages indicating a delivery failure. In other cases,an automated method may be employed which continually monitors a flow ofinbound messages 201 to determine whether they are received on theprimary server 220 as intended.

At such time as the email addresses that reside on the primary server220 are not detectable to inbound email messages 201, the inbound emailmessages 201 are redirected from the primary server 220 to the secondaryserver 230. The transition from the primary server 220 to the secondaryserver 230 can be done automatically to determine that the emailaddresses on the primary server 220 are not being detected by inboundemail messages 201. It is also possible to direct only a portion of theinbound email messages 201 from the primary server 220 to the secondaryserver 230 in cases where only a portion of the email addresses residingon the primary server 220 are undetectable to inbound email messages201. Similarly, a decision may be made to transfer all inbound emailmessages from the primary server 220 to the secondary server 230 eventhough only a portion of the email addresses on the primary server 220are undetectable to inbound email messages 201. In those cases, forexample, where it appears that primary server 220 may be prone toadditional failure. It may also be desirable in those cases where thetransition from the primary server 220 to the secondary server 230 isperformed manually, to implement a password protection scheme wherebyability to effectuate the transition requires the entering of apassword.

At the time, or immediately after, inbound email messages 201 have beenredirected to the secondary server 230, a notification is sent to usersalerting them that email messages are available on the secondary server230. The notification method may consist, for example, of the automateddelivery of notification messages 250 to an alternate email address foreach of the users. Each of the users 231, 232 and 233 will have accessto the secondary server 230 over the internet or a wide area network.The aforementioned notification messages 250 can be sent to, forexample, cellular telephones, personal digital assistance, pagers andthe like.

During the period that inbound email messages 201 are directed to thesecondary server 230, continual assessment is underway to determine whenemail addresses, residing the primary server 220, are again detectableto inbound email messages 201. This activity may take the form of, forexample, periodically pinging the email addresses residing on theprimary server 220 and evaluating whether a response is received.

Once the primary server 220 is again available, inbound email messages201 that had been directed to the secondary server 230 can be redirectedback to the primary server 220. At that time, users can be notified thatthe primary server 220 is again operational and that their traditionalemail application 240 is functioning. The notification to users canagain be in the form of a notification message delivered to each user'salternate email address.

Once inbound email messages 201 are successfully redirected to theprimary server 220, inbound email messages 201 that had been received onthe secondary server 230 during the outage can be synchronized into theemail application 240 thereby creating a comprehensive email historywithin the email application 240.

It is important to understand that in this preferred embodiment there isno need to take the primary server 220 completely offline in order totest the efficacy of the secondary server 230. In addition, there is nosignificant cost inherent in testing the efficacy or functionality ofthe secondary server 230. In addition, the ability to transfer only aportion of the email addresses residing on the primary server 220 to thesecondary server 230 provides a tremendous benefit. For example, if onlya limited number of email addresses residing on the primary server 220are affected, then only the inbound email messages 201 intended forthose email addresses can be redirected to the secondary server 230. Inanother example, after an outage has occurred, it is possible toredirect the inbound email messages 201 back to the primary server 220on a limited basis to test the viability of the primary server 220without the need to transfer all of the addresses on the secondaryserver 230 to the primary server 220. This functionality permits agradual transition back to the affected primary server 220. Also,redirecting inbound email messages 201 from the primary server 220 tothe secondary server 230 can be effectuated in less than two minutescompared to the 30-60 minutes required in traditional replicationsystems.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a method for replicating email addresses ona secondary server. In the initial step, email addresses that reside ona primary server are monitored using a means independent from the emailapplication used to process email messages to create a registry ofexisting email addresses 301. Periodically, a query 302 is sent to theprimary server to determine changes to the registry. More specifically,the query will seek to determine whether email addresses exist in theregistry 303, if there are email addresses that do not exist in theregistry 304, or whether the email addresses are currently being updatedin the registry 305. If the email address exists in the registry 303,then no further action is taken and the system repeats the query on a302 on a periodic basis. If the email addressed does not exist inregistry 304, then the email address is added to the registry 306 andthe address is updated on a secondary server 308. Thereafter, additionalqueries 302 are run on a periodic basis. Finally, if the email addressis being updated in the registry 305, that status is noted in theregistry 307 and the added queries are run in the future to determinethe updated status.

1. A method for providing backup electronic messaging services duringunplanned outages, comprising: redirecting email messages from a primaryserver to a secondary server when said primary server is unavailable;providing said intended recipients with access to said email messages ona secondary server while said primary server is unavailable; andincorporating said email messages received while said primary server wasunavailable into said intended recipient's primary email file so as tocreate a continuous email history. 2-19. (canceled)